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Make Holidays Greener campaign gets biggest response yet
More than 6,500 industry staff and holidaymakers took part in this year’s Make Holidays Greener campaign, nearly three times the 2,275 who supported last year.
These included 120 ABTA member and travel businesses, from tour operators to hotels, up from 75 last year.
Supporters took part in 119 clean-up activities worldwide and reduced, reused, recycled or removed an estimated 3,834 tonnes of waste, including food and plastic.
According to ABTA, this is the equivalent weight of the number of plastic bottles needed to stretch more than three quarters of the way around the Earth, if laid end to end.
The campaign was launched in June by ABTA in partnership with Travelife for Accommodation with the theme ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’.
Activities included a holiday clothes swap and providing people with water bottles that filter as they re-fill to avoid using single use plastic bottles.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,386 holidaymakers made sustainable holiday pledges, up 8% on last year.
ABTA said the campaign also reached more than 565,000 people via social media, both through its channels and travel bloggers sharing the messaging.
Nikki White, ABTA director of destinations and sustainability, said: "The industry continues to make great strides in reducing the amount of waste it produces.
"I would like to thank everyone who has participated this year and look forward to seeing the industry further develop its approach to sustainability in the years to come. ABTA Members are also reminded that support is available to them year round if they would like to continue their initiatives beyond this year’s campaign."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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